`Debtpocalypse' and America's fascination with The End

(RNS) For many Americans, nothing is as exciting as an impending
apocalypse, except perhaps for the thrill of waking up the next day and
discovering that Armageddon did not arrive and we have been spared.

And that has generally been the result, whether it was the "Great
Disappointment" of the 1840s when Jesus did not return as expected, or,
more recently, when the Rapture failed to occur on May 21 as evangelist
Harold Camping said it would. Camping had also predicted doomsday for
1994, and has since shifted his latest forecast to October.

But there is no reason to wait that long, as the Capitol Hill
default spectacle has provided the nation with a handy apocalypse fix.